Madison can never remember Madagascar, so we call it “I like to move it, move it” in my house.  My kids love both of the Madagascar movies (heck, my husband and I love them too — the penguins are my personal favorite).  For us, it was a naturally progression to get the Wii game (since we have done this with several other movies we have seen).  The first thing I love is that it is rated E for Everyone.  Why is this important?  We have had kid’s games rated higher than that even though they are based on little kid movies.  If it rated any higher, Madison has a tendency to not be able to play it which is just too frustrating for everyone in this house.  The graphics do the characters justice too.  The main game is a single player game.  However, there are several minigames also, and those tended to be two players.  I love that this actually easy enough for a four year old to play (hot potato and musical chairs were a hit here) and still hard enough for adults.  You also are able to pick your favorite player to play with too be it Alex or Marty or even the penguins. Each character actually has their own unique abilities (Melman has healing powers), combat skills (Marty has a powerful kick), and special moves (Alex can zip down vines).  This is truly a fun game to play, and if you don’t have a wii, you are able to get this game on DS, PSP, XBox, Playstation and PS2 also.

This is another unique toy from Oh! Toys.  I think my husband was just as excited to play with this as Madison.  This too is for ages 3 and up.  However, this does come with marbles, so if you have kids younger than three, you need to be very careful (the rule here is that Madison can’t play with this unless Will is napping).

Again, this is another toy that I like, because it makes my kids think. It requires them to think and do problem solving using creativity.  There are no bells and whistles; yet, Madison played with this for a good two hours the first day we took it out of the box.  Basically, what you do is make a track for the marble to work its way down. Right now, Madison is making pretty basic tracks with it. However, daddy did help her make a more intricate system like this one:

Also, clean up is awesome.  All of these pieces fit nicely into a bag that comes with it!  You don’t have to worry about how you are going to get all the pieces back in perfectly so you can close the box.  I also love that this is a toy that Madison can grow into.  Right now, she is only making very basic designs.  However, as she gets older, I know her designs will get more intricate.  This will also make it through the wear and tear of several children too.  It is made with good quality materials.  TheCugolino set contains 37 pieces and is 100% compatible with cuboro’s classic system.

Now, are you like me and impressed by the selection of unique toys from Oh! Toys? If so, I have the giveaway for you. Oh! Toys has offered to give one of my lucky readers a $25 gift certificate to their site. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. Go check out Oh! Toys and tell me what you would use this gift certificate for!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Reviews" /></a>

This giveaway will end on December 9 at 8:00 pm CST is available to US residents only. Good luck!

For the person who has everything, Inkubook is another great gift for them.  I recently made one for my family, and we love it.  I made it of the kids without telling my husband.  When it was delivered today, I let him open it.  He loves it.  It was so cool looking at the kids pictures as they have grown up. There are a few things I did learn.  When it tells you the picture may not look good, it won’t.  Trust me on that.  Also, make sure your clean up your pictures (like get rid of red eye) before you send them over.  They don’t fix that. However, if you end up having any problems (I had a browser that wasn’t clearing its cache), their support staff rocks.  They talked me through fixing it.  Also, the most time consuming part of this is when they upload your pictures (which you can do from both Flickr and/or your computer — how cool is that?  You are able to custom put your pictures in too or autofill.  Now, I used the autofill, and I was still able to move around the pictures where needed.  The site is pretty easy to use and navigate.  Overall, we love our new family album and are thinking of doing this for the grandmas for Mother’s Day since I already have their Christmas presents bought.  This ends up being a great quality book that you can keep forever.

I love Lands End.  They have some of the greatest products.  They are priced great for the quality you get.  In case you don’t know, Lands End has more than just clothes.  I have a Lands End jacket (I did a review of it a while back), luggage, and slippers too!

Madison picked out these really cute kid slippers herself. I was leaning more toward some that looked like ice skates, and she was like “no mom, I like the penguins”, so as you see, she won that argument. We were in the market for some slippers for all of us for the basement. As you may know, we remodeled and put down tile on the floor.  However, that tile gets really, really, really cold, and it hasn’t gotten below 0 yet.  Also, my house is pretty much all hardwood floors.  Socks don’t work well, because everyone ends up slipping and sliding and falling all over.  Madison told me they were super warm and then makes me touch her sweaty feet when she shows me (the joys of being a mom).

Now, Mommy took care of herself too. I picked up a pair of these travel slippers.  They are extra flexible for easy packing and are super soft.  They also have a slip resistant outsole.  Since I go to quite a few conferences, these will come in really handy.  Also, I have been using them around the house.  These also save my feet from my ice cold floors (both upstairs and downstairs).  My husband is liking them since I am not sticking my ice cold feet on him anymore.

Another piece we have added to our travel arsenal is this wheeled duffel bag. Can I tell you how awesome it is? Without anything in it, it is small enough to fit under my bed. Space is it a premium in my house, so that is so helpful! It also comes in extremely helpful when we go up to visit my parents. We are trying to get 4 people in two tiny bedrooms, so space is limited there too!  It is made out of denier ballistic nylon which is resistant to tears, abrasion, stains, and moisture.  Basically, it wil take a lickin’ and still look great!  You can even get it monogrammed!

Now, all I know you want to know how to get your hands on this stuff, so I am having a giveaway. The winner gets to pick which item he/she wants! Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know what you want and why!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Reviews" /></a>

This giveaway will end on December 5 at 8:00 pm CST is available to US residents only. Good luck!

We all have those men in our lives that we never know what to get them.  Remington has three new products this holiday season that would make great gifts for any men in the family – from teenage boys to grandpa.  These gifts start off at $19.99, so they are not only affordable, they also make great stocking stuffers too!  Bill, my wonderful husband, has been trying out some these new Remington products for me over the last couple of weeks.

The PG-350 is a 7-in-1 personal groomer. It has everything the men in your life could want. It has 10 adjustable settings for clipping sideburns, necks and a variety of hair lengths, as well as five adjustable settings for all styles of facial hair — goatees, soul patches, light two-day stubble, moustaches or beards of any length. It also comes with ear and a nose hair trimmer for that hair we prefer not to know about. It is rechargeable.
Best of all is the price: $19.99. We liked it here because it is a really good groomer set. It looks very high quality and works ten times better than the set he had before (which was nowhere near as big and costed me a lot more).  He found it super easy to trim his goatee, and he highly recommends it.

Another cool product Remington has this season is the ShortCut Clipper. This is the first ever clipper system that lets guys cut their own hair without having to worry about missing spots on the back of their heads or even messing up their hair. It is actually pretty cool, because you use it like you do a comb, and you are able to adjust it to five different lengths. (I had to giggle when I saw the balding comb attachment, but people do need that). Cleaning this is such a breeze too. You just rinse them off! The cost for this is $29.99.

Lastly, there is the Flex360 electric shaver. This has be my most favorite shaver out there. Bill has tried out several electric shavers in the past and none ever give him a close enough shave in my opinion. By five o’clock, he would have a noticeable five o’clock shadow. In his line of work, that really isn’t all too acceptable. However, with this razor, he does not have that problem! It also has a pop-up trimmer for precision grooming. The Flex360 also has worldwide voltage so men can easily use it wherever they travel.  We do a lot of traveling, and I have to admit, that this shaver makes me feel safer.  I always had to worry that the kids would get their hands on his razor and cut themselves.  With the kids now, I don’t have to worry about this.  There are four models that range in price from $34.99 to $74.99, so you can get the one that best serves your needs.

We have owned Remington in the past, and it is a good high quality brand.  Any man in your life would be happy to open up one of these Christmas morning!